CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Constitution might block the Department of Transportation’s move to charge tolls on a $1 billion fast-lane project it wants private companies to build in Las Vegas, legislators were told today.

Legislative lawyers told the Senate Energy, Infrastructure and Transportation Committee that a clause in the constitution seems to block the imposition of tolls by private companies to compensate them for constructing highways in Nevada.

The clause states that any fees on motor vehicles driving in the state must be used “exclusively for the construction, maintenance, and repair of the public highways of this state.”

The announcement came during testimony on Senate Bill 206, which would change the state law that now forbids toll roads. The bill would not change the state constitution.

SB206 bill, proposed by Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, would allow toll roads and set up procedures that private companies must follow if they are selected by the state Transportation Department to build roads in Nevada.

Another bill dealing with toll roads and the Transportation Department’s 19-mile planned toll lane demonstration project on Las Vegas freeways has not yet been introduced in the Assembly. The estimated $1 billion cost of his project would come from private money.